The invention relates to a child's toy meal set that provides for simulating feeding of a child's toy doll. More specifically, the invention relates to a child's meal set that provides for the simulated feeding of a variety of food types to a doll through interaction between the spoon and the food container of the meal set.
A variety of toy feeding apparatuses are known that enable a child to simulate the feeding of food to a doll.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,159,594 discloses a toy feeding spoon for use with a baby doll that contains a magnet. The magnet in the spoon cooperates with both a magnet mounted in a simulated food container and with a magnet mounted in the mouth of a baby doll. The magnet in the spoon cooperates with the magnet in the food container to change the configuration of the spoon from one where the spoon appears empty prior to insertion into the container to one where the spoon appears to contain "food" on it after removal from the container. To achieve this effect, the spoon contains a flat, circular, rotatable disk in its bowl. The disk is configured such that the magnet is mounted on its underside and on its opposite side food is present on one half of the disk and food is absent on the other half. A cover is located above the bowl of the spoon to obscure one-half of the bowl of the spoon from view and, consequently, one-half of the rotatable disk in the bowl is also obscured from view. The interaction of the magnet in the food container and the magnet on the rotatable disk rotates the disk such that the half of the disk with no food on it is positioned under the cover, and thus out of view of an observer, and the half of the disk with food on it is viewable in the uncovered half of the bowl of the spoon. In this manner a portion of the bowl of the spoon appears to contain food in it. To simulate feeding of a toy doll, the spoon is placed near the mouth of a doll that also contains a magnet within it. The interaction of the magnet in the spoon with the magnet in the doll's mouth rotates the disk so that now the half of the disk with no food on it appears in the viewable portion of the bowl of the spoon and the half that contains the food on it is positioned under the cover. Through this interaction with the doll, the food appears to have been eaten by the doll.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,118,321 also discloses a spoon that interacts with a food dish so that an empty spoon that is inserted into the dish appears to contain food on it when it is removed from the dish. The spoon is comprised of a hollow handle that retains a mechanism within it, out of view of an observer, that contains "food" on one end of the mechanism. After the spoon is inserted into the dish, and as it is being removed from the dish, a protrusion on the dish engages a protrusion on the food mechanism that is disposed within the hollow handle of the spoon to urge the food mechanism from its position within the hollow handle to a position where the food portion of the mechanism is now observable in the bowl of the spoon. To simulate feeding of a doll, as the spoon is inserted into the doll's mouth, the mouth releases the food mechanism from its extracted position in the bowl of the spoon. The food mechanism is then retracted back into the hollow handle of the spoon.
Both of these patents only disclose a spoon that changes its configuration from one where the spoon appears to contain food on it to one where the spoon appears to be empty. No provision is made for varying the type of food that is present on the spoon. Further, the mechanisms disclosed in the above-referenced two patents for changing the state of the spoon (i.e. empty vs. full) have drawbacks. The operation of the magnet mechanism as disclosed in the '594 patent can be affected during the course of play by obscuration of the magnet by foreign objects and/or through interference from other nearby ferromagnetic materials, thus rendering the magnet ineffective for changing the configuration of the spoon. The spring-biased, latched mechanism as disclosed in the '321 patent is relatively complex and susceptible to wear or damage during play by young children.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a toy feeding apparatus that could both provide for simulating the feeding of a variety of food types to a baby doll and which utilizes a simple, robust mechanism for changing the food type displayed on the spoon. In this manner, a child user could more realistically simulate feeding a baby. The child could pretend that the baby is receiving a nutritious meal of various foods that the child has prepared for baby, the baby could be imagined to put up a fuss when the child attempts to feed the baby food that it doesn't like, such as "peas", and the child could treat the baby with a special dessert when baby finishes its peas and carrots. The simple mechanical device for changing the food type displayed on the spoon of the present invention is easy to operate by a child and is durable so as to provide for extended use.